The Masks we Wear
by Catriona-Yagri
Summary: Things changed when the Ghouls appeared but nothing changes more than Naruto life than when he meets a certain mask maker. Are the shinobi ready to deal with mankind's natural predator?
1. Uta has a visitor

**_I don't own anything._**

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Uta lived a simple life in his little basement shop surrounded by his masks and the occasional body hidden in the back. Now and then he got a customer, when that happed it was both fun and annoying for him. Fun because there was a person in his shop wishing to buy something (and he could scare them), which in turn gave him something to do, annoying because he had to hide his beautiful kakugan.

He often wondered what would happen if a ninja wandered into his humble home, so far only the civilians of Konohakagure had found the little staircase that lead down to the HySy art mask studio. It both excited and scared him when he thought of a ninja walking in through the door. Would they find him harmless, suspicious, scary, weird or would one see through his little act as a common mask maker and see the vicious killing machine that he truly was.

He hoped not. Konoha was a cool place, there were no other ghouls around, he made sure of that the entire village was now recognised by the other weaker ghouls as his hunting grounds. The Torture and Interrogation department usually had a fresh body lying around that he could grab a good meal from when he didn't feel like finding a drunk to eat.

_Ninja villages are the best,_ thought Uta as he continued to munch on some poor alcoholic's hand.

"Where did that brat go?" _Hmm sounded like that came from upstairs, perhaps I should put lunch away._

The plain black door opened with its signature creak while Uta was dealing with putting his lunch away in a deep freeze hidden under the floor boards in the store room. A boy no older than eight with spikey blond hair and a blinding orange jumpsuit cackled as he said. "Ha ha served that arse right." Before dissolving into another fit of laughter, quickly recovering he looked around at the variety of masks that lined the plain white walls and sat in sparkling clean glass cases, more masks sat on mannequins in the centre of the room, the dim lights adding to the creepy feel. His mouth open in awe as he roamed around the room, upon seeing a black mask of a snarling dog he picked it up and looked it over before putting it on.

"I am the great dog spirit and I have been angered by you Sasuke- teme as punishment you must admit Uzumaki Naruto is the better and cooler than you. Muhahaha." The boy, Naruto, fell into another giggling fit as he thought of the teme face while admitting that he, Uzumaki Naruto, Hokage to be, was better than him. Taking off the mask he looked at it in more detail, it could be called a dog but it resembled a black fox's snarling face more than one of a dogs.

"Boo." It was calm and quiet and very surprising, Naruto jumped dropped the mask and screamed in the most ninja of ways.

"Waaaaaaaah." He whipped around putting his hand to his chest as if it could calm his panicking heart only to be surprised again by Uta's general appearance. They stood like that for a while, Naruto backed up against the wall his eyes why in fear as he looked at the older male. Said male had tattoos along his arms, neck and some on his chest which could be seen through the thin white singlet he wore. There were piercing in his lip as well as above his eye brow, his kakugan on as he looked at Naruto in amusement.

"I thought I would surprise you." Naruto was surprised that the man's voice was so soft and well normal. He held a tattooed finger in front of Naruto's face before gesturing for him to follow him as he walked to wards his office at the back, not the storeroom. "My name is Uta, you may call me, Uta."

"Uh, I am Uzumaki Naruto." Said Naruto cautiously before adding. "Future Hokage, Dattebayo!" Uta raised a brow at the verbal tick but he wasn't one to judge. "Eh, hey Uta- san where are you taking me?"

"You came to buy a mask didn't you?" The scary looking man asked.

"Hehe about that, not really I just needed to hide from some people." Naruto cringed when he saw man staring at him. Uta clutched his chin as if trying to solve a mystery.

"So you were the brat, hmm." Naruto scratched the back of his head while grinning impishly Uta looked down tilting his head to the side still clutching his chin mulling on what he had just said before bending down to Naruto's eye level and stared at him before saying. "What did you do?" Naruto looked anxiously towards the studio door wondering if he could out run the scary Uta.

"I might have dropped some orange paint on him." Naruto muttered then saw Uta's unimpressed look and more confidently stated. "He started it, he sold me really expensive bad food so I got him back. Dattebayo!"

"Ah, so you are a prankster." Said Uta. "Why don't you wear a mask then no one could catch you."

"Huh, how does that work." Naruto said with a puzzled look.

"If you wear a mask and different clothing." Uta mentally cringed at the insanely bright and annoying jumpsuit. "People won't know it's you there for you won't get caught, meaning you can prank more people." He looked down at Naruto again to see his reaction. Uta now ranked just below ramen on the awesome scale.

"Wait, um I can't afford a mask." Naruto looked down in shame when he thought of his monthly allowance. "I only have enough to pay rent and get important stuff like ramen."

"Hmm." Uta's thinking pose returned as he sat down on a stool. "If you come here after school and on Saturdays and help out with the shop I'll give it to you free of charge." The words were had an immediate effect on the hyperactive eight year old his face lit up as he grinned.

"Okay, cool so can I have the foxy one?"

"No, I prefer to make them from scratch more fun. Now do you have any allergies?" Uta questioned as he stood up and forced Naruto on to the now vacated stool. Before starting to measure the boys head.

"Uh no."

"Favourite food?"

"Ramen!"

"Prettiest girl in your class?"

"Sakura- chan."

"Half mask or full?"

"Full."

"Where do you live?"

Naruto froze then looked at the tattooed man before asking. "Is this all really need for making a mask?"

"No. But the more I know of you the more motivated I feel to finish." He replied in his same bored but amused and cheerful way.

"Oh, okay I live three blocks away from the hokage office and another four from the academy."

"Okay you're done. I will see at the academy in a few days' time, Uzumaki Naruto." And with that Naruto was out the door fast than a ninja could say free ramen waving to his new awesome, but scary friend. While Uta simply sat down and rocked back and forth nulling over the energetic boy that was Uzumaki Naruto only to give up and think. _I should finish lunch now._

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**_Cat out_**


	2. A Paper Bag

The Konoha market place was a usually a loud and noisy venue, there were very few times when it was silent or still. But as a tattooed man in a plain black jacket which was rolled up to reveal the black designs that covered his arms. In his hands he held a brown paper bag with _HySy Art Mask Studio_ written on the front of the bag. The civilians were silent as they looked at him in shock and disgust, while the shinobi in the area looked at him with neutral faces but their eyes held a distrustful glint in them as they looked on at the stranger. He walked up to a non-descript stand, the store owner stared at him with a frightened look stuck on his face as he got a closer look at the man's appearance. A largish pair of sunglasses hide his eyes from view while piercings rested in his lip, ears and just above his brow.

"Could you tell me where the shinobi academy is?" The merchant spluttered before pointing in the direction of the academy with a shaking hand. "Thank you." And with that he walked off as the civilians tried to gossip quietly about Konoha's newest resident and his strange appearance.

Meanwhile Naruto was enduring the daily torture that was lovingly named school. The scar faced teacher in front of the class droned on about some kind of maths or history, Naruto wasn't really listening there was this shiny thing in the tree just by the window that had captured his attention. A loud series of knock on the class room door roused him and others (Shikamaru) from their dream like state as they turned to look at the door.

"Come in." Iruka said to the person behind the door it opened to revel a tattooed man who waved to the class and gave small disturbing smile before saying.

"I'm Uta. You can call me Uta." The class shifted in their seats nervously at the sunglass covered gaze swept over the class and came to a halt at the number one troublesome student. Naruto. Said person was now being stared at by the rest of the class and sweating a little for suddenly being the centre of attention, while everyone else was wondering what the dobe had done now.

"I couldn't really be bothered to find you're apartment, so I scared a few villagers and came here. So this is a school… I expected more blood." The class looked at him in shock for three different reasons.

said he scared the villagers, while this in its self wasn't unusual by now at least ten of them would have lodged a complaint, so some poor shinobi was bound to turn up soon, and most really didn't want to deal with that,

what he'd just said he had never been to school before, lucky son of a bitch. But to the children everyone had to go to school.

that everyone thought about it for a school that trained shinobi there was very little blood.

Iruka was the first to recover from the sight, appearance or from just Uta in general and asked the question that many were wondering. "Uh, why are you here?" Not very intelligently mind but it the thought that counts.

"I have come to your school, because as I was walking past I suddenly felt peckish and saw all these fat, yummy, walking talking children… and decided to eat one. Those slightly less blessed in the intelligence department than others gasped, while that girls wept try to decide whether or not what Uta had said was true, while a lot of the clan children just giggled in amusement and were happy that the once boring lesson was turning out to be funny at least. Iurka was not happy in any way this man had interrupted his lesson for no apparent reason other than to play some annoying joke.

"Naruto. I have what you ordered, see you in the shop this afternoon, goodbye Scarface- san, good bye walking snacks." And with that the strange man known as Uta walked out and retreated back to his rather creepy little basement store. Leaving behind nothing more than a brown paper bag, stunned children and Iruka's latest nickname. Back to more important things the children were now trying to guess what was in the mysterious bag that the blond had now shoved under the his desk then looked out the window waiting for Iruka's boring lesson to continue. Said teacher didn't know whether to rush to the Hokage or continue like nothing happened. He chose the latter.

"All right everyone back to your seats and we'll continue."

"Hai, Scarface-sensei." The class chanted in unison an evil look in the shinobi in trainings eyes.

Line break.

The Hokage tower could easily be called the most important place in Konoha, due to its position in the centre of the village, the headquarters of the shinobi corps and of course where missions are issued and paid for. At this moment a women was asking for B-rank.

"Hokage-sama, please my husband, he's been missing since a day ago." A middle age women with brown hair and green eyes, wearing plain civilian clothes kneeled in front of the old withered Hokage, tears threatening to fall from her pleading eyes and cascade down her tanned skin.

"Narita-san, I am sorry but this case does not require a B-rank mission just hire a couple of genin to find him. He is probably in some ally unconscious from a hard nights drinking, like the last time. This is at highest a C-rank mission." The Third Hokage calmly explained to the distressed woman while the chunins on desk duty rolled their eyes and went back to sorting the more important missions out from the D and C-ranks. The women however was persistent and would not let it go.

"Hokage-sama, I'm willing to pay amount of money jus…" The aged man cut her off.

"Narita-san, I respect your wish to find your husband but we have far more urgent missions that we need higher rank shinobi for if you wish to pay for a mission this is a C-rank at the highest. Now pay for your C-rank to find your husband or please leave." The Sandaime's voice was cool, calm and collected but also firm the woman look up at him and, burst out in big fat, wet tears before running out of the Hokage tower. The Hokage just sighed and went back to his mountain of paper work that sat on his desk and taunting him.

Line break

The bell of the academy rang loud and clear throughout the halls that linked the classrooms together. Naruto upon hearing the bell made a mad dash for the door and was out of building by the time Iruka finished saying.

"Class dismissed." Soon Naruto was jogging the through the streets of Konoha stopping only as he found the ally way that he had slipped into by accident just a few days prior. The ally was your standard ally, trash bins, graffiti and all that stuff but on the left of the ally a plain sign stood by a stair case that lead to a certain mask shop.

Upon opening the door he heard Uta and an unrecognisable voice talking.

"My Tsukiyama-san what have you done to break my precious work of art." Naruto pecked around the door to see a well-built man with purple hair dressed in an oddly coloured suit standing in front of Uta. "Or perhaps this is an attempt to get what you know you can't have." Said Uta to the man.

"Uta-san, so suspicious all I simply wish to do is have this masterfully crafted work of art restored back its former glory, no crime in that. But now you have said such things you really have chosen such beautiful place to set up shop." Oh Uta hated this guy.

knew Tsukiyama had broken his mask on purpose, just so he would have a valid reason to enter the village without risking Uta trying killing him.

Tsukiyama became interested in anyone or anything it would annoying to get him leave or to kill him. Perhaps Renji could do it.

suit. Need he say more, the suit ruined the feel of his shop with its bright irritating colours.

"Although the people don't seem as interesting as in Iwa." So that was the poor village that was cursed with his presence thought Uta at the extravagant ghoul continued with his useless ramble. The bell rang as the door opened to revel the young boy that the village seemed to detest for currently unknown reasons. The boy smelt both tantalizingly delicious and dangerous and disgusting. Uzumaki Naruto you have Uta's attention. Perhaps the boy could save him from this idiotic narcissist.

"Ah, Naruto-kun are you ready to…" Uta was cut off as the man suddenly turned around smiled widely. Tsukiyama breathed in a deep breath through his nose before looking down at the eight year old. _If this idiot is thinking what I think he's thinking he WILL be leave my village in an unconventional way._ Thought Uta but as he saw the glint in Shuu Tsukiyama's eyes he knew nothing short of killing Tsukiyama would stop him from trying to eat Uta's latest interest.

**Hello I'm back are ya happy. Here is the latest chapter.**

**Thank you for the reviews. For those of you who are reading True Freedom the eights chapter is currently being edited and hopefully up soon.**

**Cat out.**


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